Hi Faber-Castell friends, my name is Karen and I am SO excited to be showing you all my first project here as a guest designer for Faber-Castell Design, Memory Craft!

Last week I bought a gorgeous pint of strawberries. They were shiny, plump and deliciously sweet tasting. I ended up sketching them in my sketchbook just because they made me SO happy! And then the more I thought about them, I had to turn them into a canvas!

Normally, I am a paint kind of girl. But I absolutely ADORE the pigment of the Faber-Castell Gelatos® Colors and felt the challenge to only use Gelatos® Colors for color – no paint, gasp!

I started with a piece of scrap wood. I used Faber-Castell gesso to lightly cover the top. I added a couple scraps of paper and then I literally, scibble-scrabbled Lime, Green Tea and Spearmint Gelatos® all over the top. Using a wet paint brush I blended them together. Since the three colors are Mix and Match, they all go blend together perfectly and give the background a bit of depth! Then I took Black Gelato® to go around the edge, like a frame.

So, I find that I am a little bit of an over-achiever (crazy, really) and like to cut shapes out twice. I use scrap paper to get the idea of the size and placement of the pieces on my canvas. (It also lets me edit typos . . . can you find the typo that I luckily fixed before I attached it?!)

To add to the background I used a white gelato and a stencil. In the Faber-Castell Gelatos® Colors tool set, there is a great dot dabber tool, I used it to mash the white Gelato into the stencil. Then I let it dry – overnight – because I made it SO thick!! It created a texture that actually stands out from the background, I love it!

Now, to make the strawberries as delicious looking as they were in real-life . . . I took a small chunk of Red Cherry Gelatos® and mashed it together with Glaze! It made the most intense shiny red color but is totally translucent … amazing!! I spread it onto old book paper. Then I mashed Spearmint Gelatos® with Glaze to make the color for the leaves and spread it onto another piece of book paper.

After it dried, I cut out the shapes I had planned and used Gel Medium to glue them down. (I was careful to only get the medium on the the back of the shapes, because I wanted them to stay as shiny as possible.)

Then I doodled with PITT® Artist Pens, used my Stampers Big Brush Cold Gray III to create some shadow and added some finishing touches! Now, get out your Gelatos® and Glaze and get painting!! You will be amazed at the colors, I promise!!

I CANT WAIT TO GET SOME OF THAT GLAZE... I HAVE THE SAME STENCIL YOU USED BUT I HAVE NEVER HAD SUCH A CLEAR ABILITY TO SEE AS YOURS READS.... IT MUST BE THE THICKNESS OF THE GEL
ATOS. I CANT WAIT TO TRY THIS!!!! SO INSPIRING..... THANKS!

Oh how gorgeous and amazing, I love the shiny strawberries and the texture you created with the stencil. I hadn't thought to mix glaze and gelatos; NEED to get glaze now....LOL. Thank you for sharing a wonderful project.